US pre-open: Futures point to losses at the bell as trade tensions escalate
US futures were pointing to more losses at the bell on Thursday after Donald Trump told supporters at a rally in Florida that China had "broken" the two nations' trade deal.
As of 1200 BST, futures for the Dow Jones were pointing to an 0.81% loss at the bell, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 were tracking for drops of 0.79% and 0.95% at the start of trading, respectively.
Although they tried to avoid it, opening in the green across the board, US stocks finished the Wednesday session mostly lower, extending the S&P 500 and Nasdaq's losing streak to a third straight session on the back of the escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing.
With sentiment already hit by the current state of the trade talks themselves, Trump seemed determined to rattle the cage at a Republican Party rally on Wednesday.
"You see the tariffs we're doing? Because they broke the deal. They broke the deal," Trump said. "They can’t do that, so they’ll be paying."
China, which currently has its top trade envoys en route to Washington, including Vice Premier Liu He, made it clear that it wouldn't go down without a fight against the 10% to 25% increase to tariffs on $200bn-worth of Chinese goods, set to come into action on Friday.
"China deeply regrets that if the US tariff measures are carried out, China will have to take necessary countermeasures," said the country's Commerce Ministry.
Discussing the day ahead, IG senior market analyst Josh Mahony said: "Today has all the trappings of yet another pessimistic session, with a lack of major economic releases driving greater focus on the US-China trade breakdown.
"Donald Trump's claim that China 'broke the deal' alludes to a potential backtracking from prior agreements. However, with representatives from both sides meeting for a final time ahead of tomorrow's potential tariffs increase, many will see Trump's tone as yet another move in a high-stakes chess game which clearly has further to run."
On the data front, weekly jobless claims, the March trade deficit and producer prices will be published 1330 BST, while wholesale inventories for March are scheduled for 1500 BST.
Elsewhere, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell will make some "brief opening remarks" at the Fed's community development research conference at 1330 BST.
In corporate news, Softbank, Norwegian Cruise Line, Dropbox and News Corp will all be updating investors throughout the course of the day.